Benchmarks Curricular Planning and Assessment Framework: Utilizing Standards Without Introducing Standardization

Abstract

The national early learning community faces the challenge of using early learning standards and assessments to improve learning environments while preserving educators' freedom to plan early childhood curriculum that accord with a child-centered focus and developmentally appropriate practices. Drawing on recent developments in approaches to undergraduate assessment, this article introduces an approach to curricular planning and assessment that uses state benchmarks as an umbrella structure to support curricular planning, assessment, and feedback among them. The benchmarks have a hierarchical structure that allows educators to think about benchmarks as embedded within educational goals, spanning different age-ranges, and involving activity across multiple domains of child development. The framework prompts educators to identify benchmarks for particular activities and to assess the age-appropriateness of activities and the degree to which they incorporate multiple domains of development. There are two primary curricular measures: (1) the match measure between educator predictions and observed activity, which provides timely feedback about the accuracy of educator predictions for different age-groups and across developmental domains, and (2) an open-ended measure, which provides information about the ways the children surprised educators by using the activity in an unpredicted manner. Both of these measures inform the development of classroom activities and curriculum. This article reports on the pilot implementation of this approach within an early learning program.

Early Literacy in Library Storytimes: A Study of Measures of Effectiveness

“…BCPAF was designed to examine the early learning that is occurring within informal learning environments (Feldman 2010 1. Though public library storytimes typically work to support learning across multiple domains of child development, in order to manage the scope of the study, the emphasis was placed on early literacy.…”

A Model for Assessment in Play-Based Kindergarten Education

“…Based on the frequency of pathway use, there was a prioritization on assessing academic learning goals more than developmental targets, despite the long-standing tradition of developmental teaching in kindergarten classrooms. This prioritization could be a result of recently revised curricula and the general trend toward accountability and standards-based education across the system (Feldman, 2010; Roach et al, 2010).…”

“…The majority of assessment research has been conducted in upper-year contexts, focused on the alignment of assessment with curriculum standards and the effectiveness of formative assessment strategies on student learning (Roach et al, 2010). Despite this lack of research, kindergarten teachers are expected to integrate assessment throughout their daily practice to identify students’ learning goals, assess learning toward academic and developmental targets, and inform instruction (Feldman, 2010; Roach et al, 2010).…”